Chapter 160 - Your Circle is Really Messy

September 5. Lu Chen’s debut album “You Who Sat Next To Me” was pre-publicized at QQ Music.

This album, which took more than two months to complete, was undoubtedly the real focus of business of Lu Chen Studio since its establishment. Its sales success or failure has a great impact on Lu Chen’s position in the pop music scene.

No independent artist has released his debut solo album so soon after his debut.

As a newly acclaimed singer-songwriter, Lu Chen’s talent was beyond doubt. Many of his songs have made it to the original music list, and the live version of his original works in “Singing China” has also been frequently listed in QQ Music.

Therefore, there were many people in the circle who secretly pay close attention to the online release of this album, but not everyone was optimistic about the sales of “You Who Sat Next To Me”. There was no lack of negative voices in Inspur blog.

First of all, Lu Chen didn’t make great efforts to promote and hype the album. He only advertised it in his blog, and the promotion position in QQ music website was also very ordinary, giving people the impression that they don’t have enough money and reluctant to spend money.

Today’s artists want to become popular without packaging promotion, which is basically a foolish dream. If new singers don’t spend a lot of effort on publicity and hype on their album, the sales are often very poor.

Relevant stakeholders, such as QQ Music’s websites and portal media, will also ignored them intentionally or unintentionally, and free publicity resources will not be given easily. This is a hidden rule in the industry.

For example, Lu Chen’s original works in “Singing China”, many of his songs have appeared on the hit list and download list of QQ Music, but they all quickly fell off the list and disappeared with the end of “Singing China”.

The reason was very simple. Lu Chen didn’t spend money on advertising in QQ Music. How can they allow him occupy this important promotion resource for nothing, and being able to appear on the list is already giving him face.

If QQ Music wasn’t a partner of Beijing Satellite TV’s “Singing China”, it was estimated that his songs will not have a chance to be on the list at all!

This time, Lu Chen and QQ Music officially cooperated. The latter took away the exclusive sales rights, and a small advertising space still had to be paid for 100,000 yuan.

Under normal circumstances, with Lu Chen’s title as the champion of “Singing China”, Lu Chen’s album was still promising.

But he bumped into several strong opponents!

The first opponent, Cui Zhengzhi. In 2014, he was the runner-up in Xiangnan Satellite TV’s “Super Male Voice”, and signed with Orange Field Entertainment. On September 1, he pre-publicized his debut album “Provocation” in QQ Music.

This Chinese-Korean mixed idol singer is the leading new artist of the industry giant Orange Field Entertainment.

His album has been brewing for nearly a year. It is definitely an excellent work, and its title song “Provocation” is currently rank first on the hit list of QQ Music Website, which can be described to be threatening!

The second opponent, Zou Bei, winner of the 2015 Shenhai Satellite TV’s trump variety show “National Idol”, and signed with Starlight Media. And Starlight Media is precisely the holding company of [StarryLive] Show. (TN: Shenhai is translated as Deep Sea, I’m not sure if it’s a real place.)

Zou Bei, who graduated from Huyin, is truly a talented woman. She also brought her debut album “Blooming Flower”, which began to be pre-publicized on QQ Music on September 2. (TN: Huyin is Shanghai Conservatory of Music.)

As for the third opponent, it is undoubtedly Lu Chen’s old acquaintance – Ling Xiaoxiao.

Ling Xiaoxiao performed badly in the finals of “Super Singer”, only finishing fifth place.

His defeat was strictly related to Lu Chen. Fans of both sides fought to the death in Inspur blog, and Lu Chen won the victory in the end.

This time, Ling Xiaoxiao’s debut album “True Love is Invincible” landed on QQ Music, which undoubtedly has a strong sense of vengeance for Lu Chen.

Ling Xiaoxiao’s signing company is Jin Hongwei’s Juxing company!

The production time of his solo album should be about the same as that of Lu Chen, and the pre-promotion began on September 3.

Four new artists and singers debuted their solo albums at QQ Music at the same time, and have carry out intensive pre-promotion. Such a situation has never happened in the history of QQ music website.

Usually, there is a tacit understanding between entertainment records and agencies. Unless it is a sworn enemy, or deliberate hype, they will often stagger the promotion period of their artist’s debut album to avoid confrontation.

The competition in pop music is also very fierce. Every year, a large number of newcomers emerge, and those who are qualified to release albums are all characters promoted by various companies, and no one wants to face off with the opponent at critical moments.

Killing a thousand enemies, losing 800 of your own!

(TN: From Sun Tzu’s military strategy which means that if you fight against each other, it is not only the enemy that suffers heavy losses, it is actually a loss of both sides.”

And Orange Field Entertainment, Starlight Media and Juxing are all top or first-class companies in the industry.

One can imagine how fierce the scene will be when they fight in the same place.

In fact, the main advertising space of QQ Music website has basically been divided up by the three companies. And in blogs, forums, post bars and other places, their propaganda campaign is very fierce!

In contrast, Lu Chen was simply much weaker!

To put it simply, Lu Chen made his debut in “Singing China”. After winning the championship, he didn’t participate in any notice, nor did he make advertisements to hold a fan meeting to promote himself. He was so low-key that he simply didn’t look like an artist.

Cui Zhengzhi, Zou Bei and Ling Xiaoxiao, which one of them isn’t promoting themselves everywhere. In today’s fast-paced era, the rise and fall of star idols are very frequent. It is very easy for fans to like the new and hate the old. Artists who don’t often appear on entertainment news will soon be forgotten.

Lu Chen has the strength, but he doesn’t receive notices or hype. And popularity he has accumulated will be exhausted soon.

It’s not the 80’s and 90’s anymore, where a hit song lasts for more than a decade or two!

“Our biggest problem is that people can get most of the songs on the album from other sources on the Internet…”

Lu Chen Studio. Lu Xi’s manager’s office temporarily served as a small meeting.

Except Chen Xiaomei, the receptionist, all the other members of the studio were present, plus Li Mubai.

Big sister rubbed her knitted brows and said helplessly, “So fans don’t have a strong desire to buy.” (TN: Big sister is probably Lu Xi.)

Compared with the albums of his three competitors, Cui Zhengzhi, Zou Bei and Ling Xiaoxiao, Lu Chen’s “You Who Sat Next To Me” has a high transparency. All 10 songs can be found on the Internet for free. Without a sense of mystery and expectation, the desire to purchase it was naturally greatly reduced.

Especially in the face of strong competition, many pop music lovers are likely to search the Internet for pirated content after Lu Chen’s album is on the shelves, and are more willing to spend money on the other three new albums.

Now Lu Xi has become more and more involved in the role of studio manager and agent. She spends a lot of time every day to understand the news trends on the Internet and in the circle, and tries her best to give advice to Lu Chen.

She said, “I just received a call from the business director of QQ Music, asking if we need to postpone the album’s release time to avoid a collision with Cui Zhengzhi.”

According to the agreement reached between the studio and QQ Music, “You Who Sat Next To Me” will be pre-publicized on September 5 and will officially be on sale on September 8.

Cui Zhengzhi’s “Provocation” was unexpectedly put on the shelves on the same day!

This new generation idol in the entertainment industry is no ordinary character. His father is a famous actor in China and his mother is a well-known Korean artist. Therefore, he has a wide range of contacts and many supporters in the industry.

Orange Field Entertainment that he signed with is a big company in the industry. It has many star idols and has very close cooperation with Xiangnan Satellite TV, which almost have the same interest.

With contacts and background, support from top companies, and Cui Zhengzhi’s handsome and fashionable appearance, he is a model of a Korean style small fresh meat, which is very popular among young people. His Inspur blog has nearly 10 million fans! (TN: Small fresh meat – young handsome man. So, Korean style – just think of those in K-pop band.)

No matter how many true fans or zombie fans are in it, it absolutely crushes Lu Chen in terms of popularity alone!

Cui Zhengzhi’s debut album has attracted a lot of attention.

However, it was very intriguing that, coincidentally, he has a collision with Lu Chen.

It should be known that, usually, the time between pre-promotion and going on sale on QQ Music website will not be too long. Three or four days is the best, and five days is also fine, but Cui Zhengzhi’s promotion started on the 1st!

Zou Bei’s album went on sale yesterday, and Ling Xiaoxiao’s album went on sale today.

Everyone present smelled a strong smell of conspiracy. Li Feiyu, Chen Xin and the others couldn’t help showing a worried look, and even Li Mubai, who had always been carefree, straightened up and sat up straight.

This Third Young Master Li was originally here to get acquainted with them, but Lu Chen’s debut album has something to do with him.

Because he is the core figure of Lu Chen’s fan group, he is an indispensable existence.

It’s just that Li Mubai had no idea how troublesome it was to release an album, which involved so many problems.

He couldn’t help muttering, “Your circle is really messy.”

Well, Lu Chen also told him this sentence.

Everyone is not a fool. No one has forgotten the feud between Lu Chen and Xiangnan Satellite TV. To say that it was purely a coincidence, that would be a bit of an insult to their IQ.

Of course, a behemoth like Xiangnan Satellite TV may disdain to argue with Lu Chen at all, but Orange Field Entertainment, as a partner, may not. They must be happy to let Cui Zhengzhi step on Lu Chen.

On the contrary, Ling Xiaoxiao, who had a direct conflict with Lu Chen, didn’t pose much threat, because everyone knew what he was like, and the quality of his album was unlikely to be very high.

Lu Xi’s analysis of Ling Xiaoxiao involvement was that he most likely wanted to take advantage of the hype.

The debut album of four new singers in QQ Music is undoubtedly a good hot spot for hype.

Jin Hongwei is a famous hype king in the industry.

There are wolves in front and tigers behind, so how should Lu Chen face their challenges?

All eyes were on him.

Lu Chen was surprisingly calm and said with a smile, “in fact, everyone is taking this problem too seriously.”

His smile was still full of confidence.